Company of Papal Zouaves

Monday, January 25, 2010

AFRICA IS DRESSED AS A MOOR, accompanied by men and women, feverishly dancing, perhaps not unlike David before the Ark or as a whirling dervish, as music sings the following refrain, one may imagine in the strains of the muezzin to come:

Bailad, africanos, bailad,que ya se os acerca el profetade Alá.

Dance, Africans, dance,As soon to you is coming the prophet Of Allah.

Africa, we learn, has misconstrued the prodigies that accompanied the death of Christ on the Cross, and erroneously interpreted them as signs of the coming of its anticipated prophet, Muhammad.

How is it, beautiful Africa, in a dayOf such great expressionOn earth, water, fire, and windYou celebrate with happiness?What is it that moves you?

Whirling Dervish

Africa recalls meeting Intellect, but cannot recall his name, and admits she does not know him well. Intellect, in a self-deprecating way, suggests that few men know him well: El Ingenio soy humano. And that introduction refreshes Africa's memory.

Africa remembers knowing Intellect in the house of Abraham, who worshiped one sovereign God, and remembers him in Ishmael, source of her monarchy. But from the time Ishmael was cast out from Abraham's tribe because he fancied some idols, she no longer remembers knowing him. Idolatry, Intellect points out, is inconsistent with his presence. But the days of idolatry appear cast aside, as Africa worships one God.

Que un Dios se ha de venerarni lo niego ni lo dudo.

That one ought to venerate one GodI neither deny nor doubt.

And this warms Intellect heart to Africa, so that he asks what feast they celebrate, and Africa's answer spills over into her history. She is a descendant of Ishmael and Hagar, both Ishmaelite and Hagarite, who now shuns idols and worships but one God, and yet she has no law. She worships

Without law, because I awaitThat from this true GodA prophet will give them to me.

So she has been promised by her wise men(morabitos sabios). She celebrates in anticipation of this prophet's imminent coming. So the earthquake, thunder, lightning, all assuage the confident yet anxious anticipation of Muhammad's birth. After patient listening, Intellect states that if that is so, then Africa still does not know him (or his companion Thought) well.

AFRICA: Why?INTELLECT: Because if today us two Are looking for one God,Where there is no law there is no God,And so it is that you are awaiting it,And the precise consequence isThat while you remain without lawYou are without God, in which caseIt is more just for us to absent ourselvesAnd not assist you.

(Calderón here displays a knowledge of Islam. Generally speaking, in Islam, the only law, Shari'a (شَرِيعَةٌ), is God's revealed or positive law as contained in the Qur'an (القرآن‎ al-qur’ān) and the Hadith (الحديث al-ḥadīth) as may be interpreted by religious authority. All law is revealed. All law is will. Law is good because commanded by Allah. It is true that in the 9th century, the mu`tazilah or mutazilite school (المعتزلة al-mu`tazilah) advanced the concept that good and evil were intrinsically so, and not simply because commanded so. They saw some behaviors as good or bad in themselves, and indeed bad or good by their nature, even prior to the divine law that commands them or forbids them. The mutazilites believed that human beings could know by reason good and bad, and so it may be said that they recognized a natural law. However, this school represents a small minority in Islam. The Ash’ari school or asharites (الأشاعرة al-asha`irah), which are dominant in the Sunni orthodoxy, support a contrary theory. They propose a theory of moral occasionalism, do not recognize any consistency in nature, advance the notion that only the positive revelation of God defines good and evil, the just and the unjust, and so do not believe in the natural law. Following the majority school, then, there could not have been a natural law prior to the coming of Islam. Law only came with Muhammad. Prior to his coming, all was a state of ignorance, of Jahiliyah (جاهلية). So Intellect is right according to Islam's own teaching, Africa is worshiping one God in ignorance since they do so, in this point in history, without Law.

Africa's worship of God without law in the times of the Jahiliyah were thus, in Intellect's view, in error. "A donde no hay ley no hay Dios," where there is no law there is not God. That is as true as the Latin statement, ubi caritas, ibi Deus est, God is where love is. Thus, the presence of both love and law is evidence that God is in the room.)

Africa is, however, satisfied in her present state of lawlessness, and retreats into relativism to justify her condition. But Intellect will have none of that. If God is one, there can only be one law. He cannot be served by the anticipated law of the Muslims on the one hand, and the law of the Jew on the other or any other law for that matter. If there is one God, there must be one Law, as the law points to an end, and if the end is the same one God, all law must be one. And so for Intellect there is no cause for celebration. Africa, however, disdains argument:

To meI am not disposed to disputeLaw, which I expect not to have;Only steel is what ought to beThat which should sustain;And so, if you do not wish to hurry,Look, you ought to see and hush,Return to singing and dancing,Each one with his women.

Women? Intellect asks. Africa explains that his rite allows for polygamy, that any man may marry as many women as he can support. Thought thinks (with sarcasm? and maybe lasciviously or with incipient chauvinism?): ¡Linda ley! "Pretty law!" This concept offends the more sober Intellect, as it is to him against the natural law, nay, against even love itself, to support a contract wherein a man expects each woman to give her entire self to him, and he gives her but a portion.

If it is a natural contractlove that confirms the agreement,How can it be a licit contractWhen it is not equal?I ought to both love and also cause offenseTo the eyes of the one I love?How, love and fairness offended, can I expectThat such a contract will not offend the woman?Though she is obligated, she has no suretyOf love in such contracts.How can it be with honor offended?

African polygamist

Intellect then asks Africa if the anticipated prophet will change or will preserve this barbaric law.

INTELLECT: And this precept will also be preserved in you, the Prophet having come?AFRICA: Yes.

This clinches it for both Intellect and Thought. Not only is Africa operating under no law, and acting against natural law principles in their marriage customs, but the very prophet that they anticipate will confirm them in their barbarism.

PENSAMIENTO ¿Qué será?INGENIO Secta.PENSAMIENTO Y aun hongo.

THOUGHT: What is this?INTELLECT: A Sect.THOUGHT: And yet still a sickness.

Africa resumes her singing, refusing to entertain any more argument, and sings for the coming of her anticipated prophet, Thought joins, and Intellect mutters:

¿De un abismo en otro abismo,dónde, Pensamiento, vas?

From one abyss into another abyss,Where, Thought, are you going?

Thought observes that Africa has one and only God. Yet Intellect insists that they are without Law, and that is equivalent to not having God. To which Thought suggests they pay visit to the Synagogue, as it has both one God and one Law. And they see Synagogue and Paul (before his conversion) advancing.

At first, Intellect is pleased, as he remembers Paul who was his faithful friend when he studied at the school of Gamaliel. But Intellect sees Paul speaking with Synagogue enveloped in anger and zeal, and he wisely decides it is not time to speak, and retires. Thought ends the scene saying:

"It is manifest that, as it has been said, there are only three laws and no more; that is the Law of the Jews, the Christians, and the Saracens. The Law of the Jews is good in as much as it is the foundation of the Law of the Christians; but the Law of the Christians is the best inasmuch as it is complete; but I say that the Law of the Saracens is false and erroneous . . . "

O Mary,Mother of Mercy,watch over all people,that the Cross of Christmay not be emptied of its power,that man may not strayfrom the path of the goodor become blind to sin,but may put his hope ever more fully in Godwho is rich in mercy.May he carry out the good works preparedby God beforehandand so live completelyfor the praise of his glory.